MANAGER: They've settled into a system

28 January 2017

Hall / Nixon

Keith Curle ahead of the home game against Barnet

United boss Keith Curle spoke about today’s game against Barnet at his Friday afternoon press conference.

Speaking first about striker John Akinde, he said: “He’s another good player who scores goals. He’s a different type of player to Charlie [Wyke] and he can be a right handful if he’s on his game. It’ll be interesting to see how we deal with him.

“It isn’t just about Akinde though because some of the supply to him is excellent. They’ve consistently played a 4-2-3-1 and they can very quickly get players to join in with the big striker.

“We will definitely have one eye on what we need to do to stop them, but we’re not bad ourselves, with some decent striking options in Wyke, Miller and Ibehre. That’s backed up by good movement and play from midfield.”

“Barnet are a good team, with some good dynamics about their play, but I think we can cause them problems,” he continued. “We’ll also have it in mind that they are very competitive, and they’ve got a good understanding and athleticism. They’ve settled into a system, they can play a counter-attacking game and play direct to get people in and around Akinde.

“As a focal point for the team, Akinde is very important. You’ve got to deal with the first ball up to him because they use that as a springboard for a lot of their play.

“The emphasis today will be on marshalling the individual while also keeping the focus on what we do when we’ve got the ball, because we’ve got some very good players in our team.”

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